1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to carrying harnesses and fishing accessories, and more particularly, to a back strain alleviating wearable fishing pole harness.
2. Related Art
Fishing is an activity that has been pursued for generations, primarily for food, though recently for recreational purposes. A wide variety of practices fall under the general category of fishing, including angling, spear-fishing, blast fishing, and so forth. The most popular type of recreational fishing is angling, in which a hook (also referred to as “angle”) or other like tackle is attached to an extended, semi-rigid rod by a line. A reel that stores, retrieves, and pays out the line is attached to the base portion of the rod for manipulation by the angler. The hook is dressed with bait or lures to persuade the fish to bite down upon the same, resulting in the capture of the fish. The hook and the bait/lures are cast out to a location in the water where the angler anticipates the fish are congregating using a variety of physically demanding techniques (overhead, underhand, sideways, or variations thereof, depending upon the restrictions imposed by the location and surroundings). Once a bite is detected, the hook is set and the fish is manually reeled back to the angler, also referred to as landing the fish.
This step typically places a greater physical demand on the angler, as it involves repeated bending and straightening of the angler's arms and back. Once hooked, fish have a tendency to resist and fight back against the line being retrieved or pulled back toward the angler. Although conventional fishing lines have substantial tensile strength to withstand such resistance, even for the smallest and weakest of fish, best angling practices still involve a technique by which the tension is distributed to the rod. Specifically, the angler stops spooling the reel while the rod is at a slight angle to surface of the water. Then, the rod is pivoted rearward into an upright position, which pulls the fish closer without decreasing the length of the line. Immediately, the rod is pivoted forward again into the slightly angled position. Typically, at this point, there is a slight slack in the line allowing it to be spooled without much tension. Once further resistance is felt from fish while spooling the reel, the process is repeated. If too much resistance is encountered, the line is released to prevent breakage.
When fishing from a mobile platform such as a boat, the movement of the rod can be restricted to simply forward and backward, as the platform can be rotated left to right to accommodate the movement of the fish. Thus, the rod is maintained in a co-axial relationship to the direction of travel of the fish. However, when fishing from a stationary platform such as a shoreline, the lateral position and angle of the rod relative to the angler must be modified to maintain this co-axial relationship. As such, a sideways pivoting of the rod is also incorporated.
For stronger anglers, these techniques may be adequate because a substantial exertion of the back and abdominal muscles may not be necessary to pivot the rod rearward. However, such a strength advantage may be marginal, particularly with larger and stronger fish or when fishing in unstable platforms such as the aforementioned boat. Pain caused by the over-exertion of muscles, as well as compression and twisting of the spine, is therefore a common affliction amongst anglers. In the worst case, back and spinal injury may result. These effects are exacerbated for those anglers who are advanced in age and/or of weaker strength. Thus, although pursued with the intention of being a relaxing experience, fishing may paradoxically end up being quite unpleasant. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved back strain alleviating wearable fishing pole harness.